ODU dusts Radford 82-59 to make CBI semifinals, will head to Fresno State

NORFOLK — Jeff Jones knows that some folks view postseason events such as the College Basketball Invitational tournament as more March Mildness than Madness. Through one week and two games, he and his Old Dominion players are clearly engaged and enthusiastic.

The Monarchs continue to make the most of their opportunity — contrived and subsidized or not — and made the CBI semifinals with a dominant 82-59 win against Radford Monday at the Constant Center.

"To be honest, we just love playing basketball," ODU forward Richard Ross said. "We get to wake up and continue to play. When we thought our season was over after the conference tournament, everyone was in kind of a depression. Playing basketball is what we do. That's what we want to continue to do. Once we got that text message saying we were going to be able to play, I think it just gave everybody new life."

The Monarchs' new life has them at 18-17 overall, the first time they've been over .500 since late January. They learned in the wee hours that they quickly must travel across the country to face Fresno State (19-16) in a semifinal at 10 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

The other semifinal will pit Illinois State at Siena. Like Fresno and the Monarchs, Illinois State and Siena played at home Monday and won.

Ross jump-started the Monarchs with 17 of his career-high 23 points in the first half, several of which were spectacular, rim-rattling dunks. He also grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out four assists.

"To be honest, scoring was the easy part," Ross said. "My teammates were setting such good screens and throwing such good passes, I had no choice but to score."

Redshirt freshman Ambrose Mosley continued his late-season surge with 15 points, including three 3-pointers, and five rebounds — a performance that Jones all but attributed to an elongated season.

"It's nice that we can get out there and try to add some different wrinkles," Jones said of the extra practice time. "It's the game experience, that's the benefit. A guy like Ambrose, he's a freshman. He wasn't able to play or practice at all last year. He's able to play additional games. When he's able to play 29 minutes the way he did tonight and be a factor tonight, that's going to help us progress as a team that much further going into next season.

"I haven't heard directly from anybody, but I've been told there are some detractors, and that's fine. They're entitled to their opinion, but I could really care less. No matter what the letters are in front of the tournament, if you're able to play in March ... for a young group like ours, a relatively inexperienced group, nobody can tell us it's not valuable and it's not going to help us next year."

The Monarchs dictated pace and contributed to one of Radford's worst offensive performances of the season. The Highlanders (22-13) scored 57 points in the first half of last week's 96-92 win at Oregon State, a signature victory in the program's history.

But on Monday, Radford managed its third-fewest points of the season and 19 fewer than its average, shooting just 37 percent from the field. The Monarchs kept Radford's go-go guards in front of them for the most part, and gave up few easy shots.

Meanwhile, Radford wasn't nearly attentive enough on defense, as ODU shot 52 percent and had five players in double figures.

ODU broke to a double-figure lead early and led 39-23 at halftime. The Highlanders made a mini-run and drew within 11, but a 13-3 run capped by a Dimitri Batten 3-pointer opened a 56-35 lead. Radford was never closer than 14 thereafter.

"You could practice all you want, you could work out all you want, but you're never going to get as much experience as you can playing in a basketball game," Ross said. "You can't simulate playing in a college basketball game in practice or in pickup games. I think playing in a postseason tournament is good for me, just like it is for everyone else."

After Monday's game, the ODU camp's mission was to rest and wait to see who and where they play.

As trainers carted Jerry Ugokwe off the Unitas Stadium field last November, William and Mary football coach Jimmye Laycock couldn't avoid the thought: His team's entire starting offensive line, a group with so much promise and youth, was wiped out by injury.

Robbie Babb posted his third and fourth victories of the season with a clean sweep of twin 30-lap Modified races, the featured events of Saturday evening’s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series program at Langley Speedway.